As artificial intelligence seeps into much of the software available today, technology professionals have the opportunity to advance into lucrative careers and expand their AI skills.
In recent months, AWS has encouraged people to improve their AI skills with a wide selection of courses and certifications.
Last year, Amazon partnered with Code.org for the “AI Ready” pledge, which is a set of generative AI courses to teach generative AI skills. Over the course of this commitment, Amazon wants to provide two million people around the world with the skills necessary for lucrative careers focused on generative AI by 2025.
In June, AWS announced that it will open the doors to two new certifications starting in August. Additionally, Amazon offers cloud computing skills training and other free online courses.
AWS to launch two new AI certifications in August
One certification, AWS Certified AI Practitioner, covers the fundamentals of artificial intelligence and machine learning, design considerations, model tuning, and more. Since this is an AWS course, you should have some experience with AWS before you start; however, it is not necessary to have built AI/ML solutions on AWS before. This certification costs $75 and concludes with a 120-minute exam. Registration opens on August 21.
The second certification, AWS Certified Associate Machine Learning Engineer, is designed for people who already have about a year of experience designing AI/ML on AWS. This certification teaches technical skills related to ML workloads. It covers feature engineering, model training, model integration and deployment, security, and more. AWS Certified Machine Learning Engineer – Associate will be released in beta, meaning lessons from the first round of participants can be used to create a standard version of the exam later. The beta version is open for registration on August 13. It will cost $75 and will include a 170-minute exam.
Certifications can then be added to a resume to demonstrate that AWS has verified your AI knowledge.
Free Generative AI Training Courses for Professionals and Beginners
AWS offers a variety of free or low-cost training courses to make it easier to use its platform. The following generative AI training courses are available for free on Amazon through AWS Skill Builder for developers and technical audiences:
- Fundamentals of rapid engineering.
- Low-code machine learning on AWS.
- Creating language models in AWS.
- Introduction to Amazon Transcribe.
- Building generative AI applications with Amazon Bedrock.
The following generative AI training course is available for free on Amazon for beginners and students:
- Generative AI learning plan for decision makers through AWS Skill Builder.
Employers are looking for AI skills
According to Indeed, generative AI skills are one of the highest-paying tech skills employers are looking for in February 2024. Deep learning, a type of machine learning, also made the list. Salesforce India noted in March 2024 that AI creates new types of tech jobs, including:
- Fast engineering.
- AI training.
- Analysis of feelings.
- And more.
SEE: Generative AI skills can lead to the highest salaries in today's tech industry, according to Indeed. (Technological Republic)
AI Ready Courses Add to Existing Library of AI and Cloud Resources
These courses are in addition to Amazon's existing free cloud computing classes. Amazon aims to provide 29 million people with the right skills for careers in cloud computing by 2025.
Amazon offers more than 100 free and low-cost training courses and other resources on AI, machine learning, and generative AI through AWS Skill Builder and AWS Educate. Taking some of these courses alongside generative AI training could broaden your understanding of how different AWS and Amazon capabilities work together, as well as contextualize their places in the broader world of AI and ML technologies.
This article has been updated since its initial publication.
